“The single biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership development. There is almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good people, raises them up as leaders and continually develops them.”
-John Maxwell
One of the most visited national parks is the Grand Canyon national park; with over 6,300,000 visitors each year the park ranks number two amongst the sixty national parks, the beauty of the landscape is only matched by the depth of the canyon itself, standing in the south rim you can look right or left and appreciate the proportion of the canyon. It only took the Colorado river six million years to carve this monument in the heart of the southwest desert, the Colorado river has been chipping of the canyon for that long and continues to do so.
Just like the Grand Canyon: great leaders are not formed overnight, in fact to become a great leader will require practice and dedication. Take Mohandas Gandhi, who was successful and leading a pacific rebellion against the powerful British empire, it took years of practicing nonviolent smaller rebellions before he was able to get enough support for India’s independence. Just like Gandhi, the Grand Canyon, Abraham Lincoln or any other great leader it will take practice and commitment to reach greatness. Here are somethings to consider in the way to become a great leader:
You lead by example or you don’t lead at all. A good leader sets the example every day, is not good enough to set the example 90% or even 95% of the time, a good leader has to set the example 100% of the time. This does not mean he has to be perfect or that the leader is the best, but a leader sets the tone, if a leader only shows the example 90% of the time the other 10% will show the followers an example they don’t want to see.
Leaders don’t ask followers to do things they are not willing to do themselves. This is my personal favorite, a good leader puts on the shoes of the followers and is willing to complete a task if needed.
Trust. Great leaders are trusted by their followers, but you just don’t step in front of the people they intend to lead wave a magic wand and they become trusted, trust is built and nurture over a long period of time. Only when there is congruence between what a leader says and does trust will be built, if a leader has a good reason for a separation between the two, he must explain the reason to his followers, if he failed to live up to his promises he must apologize. Trust can take years to be built and seconds to be destroyed.
Transparency. A leader should always keep it followers informed and share any relevant information as it becomes available; if a leader has a good reason not to share relevant information he should say so when asked instead of denying it or lying about it, transparency is a daily practice that will shape a leader in the long run.
If you aspire to be a great leader you must realize that great leaders are not born, they are made, and the traits of great leaders are built over long periods of time. fugamus a figurans stillando aquam petram, or “water shapes the rock not by dumping but by dripping” translated from Latin. Just like the Colorado river has taken its time to shape the grand canyon and continues to shape it, so a leader must take its time to shape its leadership.
Herbert Meléndez 